April 21, 2010

He’s a Loser, He Has No Career, You’re Better Than Him

Choosing a partner is hard — you want someone you love and respect, but its also nice if the people around you at the very least respect the person (or tolerate them), and certainly don’t criticize him or her nonstop. If you aren’t far into a relationship with someone, why would you want to put up with non-stop criticism about them. At what point does their reputation dwarf what you see?

A bad reputation in college means people talk about them on their Monday morning walks to class and during pregames. But a bad reputation in Hollywood means the criticisms that bloggers write about and what people who have never so much as been in the same state as this person say; all of which would be a whole lot worse. So I wonder — why do some celebrities tolerate it?

Take for example Audrina Patridge. The Hills “star” has a penchant for dating people that the media can relentlessly attack her for. I’m proud to say I’ve never seen an episode of her MTV show — and yet I can embarrassingly admit I actually know who Justin Bobby is (although I just found out that’s not his real name…) . And I know that Audrina was teased for dating this loser. And then she apparently found real love with Ryan Cabrera. That’s a name I hadn’t heard in YEARS. It was six years ago that he had a song on the radio, “On the Way Down.”

Audrina and Ryan are now a budding couple — and NOT broken up. How cute. Let’s ignore the possibility that Rydrina (oh wait, they aren’t popular enough for a catchy nickname) could be some sort of Joe Simpson-esque orchestrated coupling, and imagine that Audrina and Ryan are trying to be ‘the real thing.’ To my knowledge Ryan doesn’t have much going for him from what I can see (career, looks). So I wonder, does it not bother her that he is a Los Angeles-regarded failure? Audrina doesn’t exactly have the clout to survive a Ryan Cabrera relationship without damage to her own reputation.

Another couple in which many wonder why she started dating him is the lovely and talented Jennifer Hudson and David Otunga. Jennifer Hudson is one of those people who you think: ‘WHAT?! She was on American Idol?! No way!’ This is because she has broken away from that mold and become her own fabulous person. Jennifer Hudson has excelled as an actress, picking up an Oscar and appearing in both Sex and the City films. David Otunga is a reality star contestant, from I Love New York 2, and now wrestling in the WWE. You have to just wonder how they even met. But, I will say, David Otunga, you did well with the aftermath of Jennifer Hudson’s family’s murders. So props to you, I won’t criticize you anymore (and you have a really cute kid).

Ryan Cabrera, however, has shown no such coping skills.

Obviously Jennifer and Audrina are one, not in the same stratosphere of fame and respect at all, and two, not the only people guilty of this in Hollywood. And if they’re happy with David and Ryan then that’s great. I guess reputation didn’t shadow their feelings for them (like Paris Hilton and Doug Reinhardt, who recently broke up when Paris discovered Doug was using her — SHOCKER!).

I don’t mean to criticize them at all, just call to attention to how difficult it can be to the ‘settler’ to your extreme ‘reacher’ for a multitude of different reasons. Plus how difficult it must be to hear the opinions of a bunch of people whose opinions don’t matter to your relationship whatsoever (including my opinion).

But, when Audrina breaks up with Ryan citing something like ‘different lifestyles’ or ‘he’s a loser with no career’ or even ‘he was using me for press’ we’ll all know what got to her.

Aside from the “No Line in ’09” slogan plastered on the backs of the Cornell Hockey aficionados, little else remains as evidence of last semester’s swine flu pandemic. Since February, Gannett has diagnosed only 80 cases of “influenza-like illness” even though these months typically experience higher rates of flu illnesses, according to Jennifer Austin, Gannett communications specialist.As of Apr.